Spells and hope and an Amazon (oh, my!)
Oct. 4th, 2026 05:33 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shewhomustMy mind insists that spells and hope are among the implements with which the snark should be hunted. In this, my mind is mistaken:
No snarks, then, will be captured by the three excursions of a busy week. It's probably just as well.
A week and a half ago, we went to see Emily Portman at the Glasshouse. We set off early enough, we thought, for me to go to the reading group, and fordurham_rambler to visit a client and work on their new website. We had not allowed for the gridlock in Gateshead - how long is it since they closed the flyover? And the traffic is still as bad as when it firsthappened. So after an hour, when we were still south of the Tyne, we threw in the towel and went straight to the Glasshouse, which we have not visited since it used to be the Sage.
Emily Portman is touring to promote her new album, Dominion of spells, but she, too, was in nostalgic mood, reminiscing about her days on the folk degree course, and giving her graduation recital in that same Hall 2. We weren't there, but we first heard her in Hall 2, standing in for the singing voice of Louisa Killen, who had a cold. I enjoyed the concert, including the new songs, and all credit to the band (Louis Campbell on guitar and Lucy Revis on cello) but what I thought was not "I need to buy this!" but "I need to listen to The Glamoury!" This is true, but possibly I need to become more familiar with the new songs, too...
Eight days ago we returned to Redhills for the AGM of the City of Durham Trust, at which the Trust's annual Architectural Award was presented to Redhills for their fantastic restoration and extension, with Andrew McIntyre, Redhills CEO, as speaker and guide as we toured the building. He pointed out, as you'd expect, how cleverly the new extension had been married to the old, but where he was really eloquent was in talking about the original 1915 Miners' Hall, how skilfully and cleverly it had been built, what it meant for the funds to have been raised from the contributions of the union members, and from there seamlessly into all the other things the miners' union had funded for its members, the retirement homes an education and medical care... Redhills has built the word "Hope" into its logo (yes, it got there before the Labour Party) because although we remember what the miners' union did to combat the ills of the past, they represented themselves as working for a better future - which was all very cheering. After the formal session, I asked Andrew McIntyre whether the Folk Festival had gone well for Redhills. "Yes," he said, "they drank the bar dry. Twice."
Last Tuesday we went again to Newcastle for the local launch (at the Lit & Phil) of Lo! An Amazon!, Mary and Bryan Talbot's graphic biography of Mary Wollstonecraft. Having learned our lesson, we both set off early and took a different route, with the result that we arrived ridiculously early, but this gave us an opportunity to chat to Bryan and Mary, so I don't regret it. And I'm looking forward to reading the book.
"You may seek it with thimbles - and seek it with care;
You may hunt it with forks and hope;
You may threaten its life with a railway-share;
You may charm it with smiles and soap - "
No snarks, then, will be captured by the three excursions of a busy week. It's probably just as well.
A week and a half ago, we went to see Emily Portman at the Glasshouse. We set off early enough, we thought, for me to go to the reading group, and for
durham_rambler to visit a client and work on their new website. We had not allowed for the gridlock in Gateshead - how long is it since they closed the flyover? And the traffic is still as bad as when it firsthappened. So after an hour, when we were still south of the Tyne, we threw in the towel and went straight to the Glasshouse, which we have not visited since it used to be the Sage.Emily Portman is touring to promote her new album, Dominion of spells, but she, too, was in nostalgic mood, reminiscing about her days on the folk degree course, and giving her graduation recital in that same Hall 2. We weren't there, but we first heard her in Hall 2, standing in for the singing voice of Louisa Killen, who had a cold. I enjoyed the concert, including the new songs, and all credit to the band (Louis Campbell on guitar and Lucy Revis on cello) but what I thought was not "I need to buy this!" but "I need to listen to The Glamoury!" This is true, but possibly I need to become more familiar with the new songs, too...
Eight days ago we returned to Redhills for the AGM of the City of Durham Trust, at which the Trust's annual Architectural Award was presented to Redhills for their fantastic restoration and extension, with Andrew McIntyre, Redhills CEO, as speaker and guide as we toured the building. He pointed out, as you'd expect, how cleverly the new extension had been married to the old, but where he was really eloquent was in talking about the original 1915 Miners' Hall, how skilfully and cleverly it had been built, what it meant for the funds to have been raised from the contributions of the union members, and from there seamlessly into all the other things the miners' union had funded for its members, the retirement homes an education and medical care... Redhills has built the word "Hope" into its logo (yes, it got there before the Labour Party) because although we remember what the miners' union did to combat the ills of the past, they represented themselves as working for a better future - which was all very cheering. After the formal session, I asked Andrew McIntyre whether the Folk Festival had gone well for Redhills. "Yes," he said, "they drank the bar dry. Twice."
Last Tuesday we went again to Newcastle for the local launch (at the Lit & Phil) of Lo! An Amazon!, Mary and Bryan Talbot's graphic biography of Mary Wollstonecraft. Having learned our lesson, we both set off early and took a different route, with the result that we arrived ridiculously early, but this gave us an opportunity to chat to Bryan and Mary, so I don't regret it. And I'm looking forward to reading the book.
